Graphic Shows How Much Olympic-Level Activity It Takes To Burn Off Junk Food

Trending News: It Takes 1 Hour Of Olympic Kayaking To Burn Off 2 Glasses Of Wine

Why Is This Important?

Because this graphic will stop you reaching for that beer while you’re watching the Olympics.

Long Story Short

Online doctor service Treated.com has created a stunning (and depressing) graphic that shows how much Olympic-level athletics you’d have to perform to burn off our daily indulgences.

Long Story

If, like most people, the closest you’ll get an Olympian effort this month is dashing to the fridge to get a beer in time for a race to start on the TV, you may want to look away from the following graphics.

Online health advice site Treated.com has crunched the numbers and found that it takes a surprisingly large amount of Olympic activity to burn off our unhealthy eating.

Treated.com

For example, 30 minutes of kayaking burns a total of 437 calories (assuming a person weighs 154 lbs), which sounds pretty good until you discover that 437 calories is the equivalent of just two big glasses of red wine or two slices of greasy pepperoni pizza.

A half hour of Olympic boxing would use up 448 calories (although this doesn’t factor in breaks for rounds), but that only equates to one double cheeseburger, which most of us can see off within minutes (if not faster, if we're being honest).

Treated.com

When it comes to swimming, the ratios are even worse. 30 minutes of swimming is only 343 calories, which is roughly the same as four chocolate cookies.

Treated.com

To work off two pints of beer, which generally amount to 360 calories, you’d need to do half an hour of Taekwondo (although it’s not recommended to do so under the influence of those beers).

And the best Olympic event for calorie burn? Running, or marathon running to be precise, which allows you to burn 465 calories (or a steak and kidney pie which, apologies to our UK friends, but Americans have never heard of) every half hour. Well, it wasn’t going to be something easy was it?

The message seems to be that hours of gruelling physical endurance can be cancelled out by minutes of easily accessible sofa snacks, which is true — you can't outwork a bad diet, but you can certainly outeat a great exercise regimen. What's also interesting is not just how many calories these sports burn, but which sports burn the most calories.

Swimming, for instance, is often thought of as the ideal combination of resistance and aerobic exercise, and swimmers' bodies would seem to confirm this. And yet, in terms of caloric burn it pales in comparison to boxing, kayaking and even taekwondo. Never underestimate the power of anaerobic exercise, it seems.

The bad news keeps on coming too with new studies suggesting that we need to do more than 12 hours of exercise per week to stand the best chance of avoiding heart attacks, strokes, cancer and diabetes. That’s a considerable leap from the World Health Organization’s advice of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, but even that is beyond the majority of people.

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How often do we undo our good work at the gym with our diet choices?

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And people wonder why they find it hard to stay in shape…

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The average American walks just 5,117 steps per day, according to a Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise study while the average person in Western Australia walks nearly double at 9,700.

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